A SLICK corporate film has been broadcast to Birmingham City Council staff in the latest salvo in the bitter pay and grading review.

The nine-minute film has been issued on the council's internal staff website and is aimed at weakening support for the two-day strike set for April 23-24.

Unions are currently in dispute over the pay and grading system under which up to 5,000 staff could see their pay cut - some by many thousands of pounds per year. It features

chief executive Stephen Hughes and human resources director Andy Albon selling the merits of the new pay and grading system introduced recently.

Mr Hughes says: "If there are (salary) losers it is through no fault of their own. We value the work that they've been doing and want to protect them from the consequences of this change.

We couldn't get to the situation where everybody gained because the cost of that would have been too high." Opposition Labour group deputy leader Coun Ian Ward (Shard End) said the film would be counter productive and intensify support for the strike.

"I can't see how having Stephen Hughes, the most highly-paid council officer, pontificating on this is going to make any difference to those at the sharp end. He is not the one receiving a pay cut."

The dispute has intensified this week following the announcement by the council unions of a second city wide walkout, following the one-day strike in February. The actions coincides with a strike by the National Union of Teachers over pay and could see a majority of city schools closed.

Earlier this week Conservative cabinet member for human resources Alan Rudge sent out a 'myth-busting' leaflet in which he accused the unions had been spreading untruths about the new system to stoke up the dispute.